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A35
business
September 1, 2013 www.guardian.co.tt Sunday Guardian
SAN FRANCISCO---Geeks aren t the
only people wearing Google Glass.
Among the people testing Google
Inc s wearable computer are teachers,
dentists, doctors, hair stylists,
architects, athletes and even a zookeep-
er.Some 10,000 people are trying out
an early version of Glass, most of them
selected as part of a contest.
The Associated Press spoke to Glass
owners who have been using the
device: Sarah Hill, a former TV broad-
caster and current military veterans
advocate, and Deborah Lee, a stay-
at-home mom.
Glass is designed to work like a
smartphone that s worn like a pair
of glasses. Although it looks like a prop
from a science fiction movie, the device
is capturing imaginations beyond the
realm of nerds.
The trio s favourite feature, by
far, is the hands-free camera that
shoots photos and video through voice
commands. (Images can also be
captured by pressing a small but-
ton along the top of the right frame
of Glass.) They also like being able
to connect to the Internet simply
by tapping on the right frame of Glass
to turn it on and then swiping
along the same side to scroll through
a menu. That menu allows them
to do such things as get directions
on Google s map or find a piece of
information through Google s search
engine. The information is shown
on a thumbnail-sized transparent
screen attached just above the
right eye to stay out of a user s
field of vision.
Among the biggest shortcomings
they cited was Glass short battery
life, especially if a lot of video is being
taken. Although Google says Glass
should last for an entire day on a sin-
gle battery charge for the typical user,
Hill said there were times when
she ran out of power after 90 min-
utes to two hours during periods when
she was recording a lot of video.
Glass speaker, which relies on a
bone conduction technology, also is
inadequate, according to the testers
the AP interviewed. They said the
speaker, which transmits sound through
the skull to allow for ambient noise,
can be difficult to hear in any envi-
ronment other than a quiet room.
"If you are out in the street or any-
where else where there is any noise,
it s impossible to hear," Lee said. "That
has been challenging because there is
no way to adjust it. If you could adjust
the sound, I think it would solve a
lot of problems."
Hill, 42, became a Glass evan-
gelist shortly after she picked up
the device at Google s New York offices
in May.
"This is like having the Internet
in your eye socket," Hill said. "But it s
less intrusive than I thought it
would be."
The liberating aspects of Glass came
into sharper focus for Hill as she took
a cab to the airport for her flight home.
During the taxi ride, she began a video
call on Google Hangout. As the
cab was preparing to drop her off
at the curb, Hill was about to end
the call so she could carry her
baggage.
"That s when it hit me that,
Holy cow, I don t have to cut the call
off, " Hill recalled. "So I carried on
a conversation through the airport
and people were staring at me
like, What is that thing on your face? "
Hill became accustomed to the
quizzical looks as she wore Glass
to community gatherings, restaurants
and shopping excursions. The encoun-
ters usually led to her offering
others to try on Glass, and most were
impressed, Hill said.
Hill has already used Glass to pro-
vide a tour of the World War II memo-
rial in Washington, DC, for veter-
ans who were too old or ill to
make the journey themselves.
Lee, has been relying on Glass
mostly to capture precious moments
with her nine-month-old daugh-
ter, Maddie. Lee, 34, told Glass to
take the pictures as she as tickled
and kissed her daughter s tummy.
"Obviously, you can t do that with
a phone in your hand, so I am
totally loving Glass," Lee said.
Glass also allowed Lee to set up
live video sessions with her par-
ents so they could see Maddie eat
her first solid food just as she
saw it. "I am capturing all these tiny
moments that are really exciting with
a baby," Lee said.
Glass ability to take hands-free
pictures and video has raised con-
cerns among privacy watchdogs who
believe the device will make it
easier to secretly record the activ-
ities of other people. But Levy is con-
vinced that what Glass can do
isn t much different than what many
people already do with their smart-
phones.
Some analysts question whether
Glass will have mass appeal once
it hits the market. Skeptics who have
seen the early participants walking
around wearing Glass believe the
device will eventually be remembered
as a geeky curiosity that never
lived up to its hype.
Angela McIntyre, a research direc-
tor for Gartner Inc, believes the retail
price for Glass will have to plummet
to $200 to make a significant
dent. Early testers had to pay
$1,500 for the device, though Google
hopes to bring that price down by
the time of its mass-market release
next year.
Even then, McIntyre believes
smartwatches, another type of Inter-
net-connected device starting to
appear on the market, will win a big-
ger following than Glass. "Most peo-
ple are just more used to putting
technology on their wrist," she
said.
In a recent report on wearable
computing, Forrester Research
analyst Sarah Rotman Epps predict-
ed Glass will appeal largely to "young,
socially connected tech optimists"
and professionals, such as sur-
geons, construction managers and
even farmers, who could use the
device as part of their jobs. (AP)
GoogleGlass through eyes of early users
Sarah Hill, a Google Glass contest winner, of Columbia, Missouri, tries out the device, in New York. (AP PHOTO)